02 April 2026

POLITIFACT WEEKLY: This week: Fact-checking Trump on birthright citizenship, birth tourism … Trump’s shifting timeline for Iran war’s end … Do you need a ‘detox’ cleanse? … Florida challenges NFL’s Rooney Rule as unconstitutional affront … Why doctors recommend the vitamin K shot for babies 2APR26

This week: Fact-checking Trump on birthright citizenship, birth tourism … Trump’s shifting timeline for Iran war’s end … Do you need a ‘detox’ cleanse? … Florida challenges NFL’s Rooney Rule as unconstitutional affront … Why doctors recommend the vitamin K shot for babies

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April 2 is International Fact-Checking Day. Here’s what it means in 2026.

Greetings from Storrs, Connecticut, home to thousands of excited UConn students waiting to see how their men’s and women’s teams fare in the Final Four basketball tournaments this weekend. I came here Wednesday, on April Fools’ Day, not to talk basketball but to chat with student Huskies and members of the public about how to do their own fact-checking and not be fooled online.

My slideshow traced the steps our reporters took to prove a viral screenshot of President Donald Trump appealing to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to pardon Tiger Woods wasn’t real. I explained how relying on visual cues alone wasn’t enough to know a hyper-realistic video of a child crying over a service member’s coffin wasn’t authentic, and the motivations people may have in producing that sort of content for clicks.

When every day on social media feels like April Fools’, we need robust teams of journalists who call out attempts to misinform and also help people safely and smartly navigate their own networks. It’s an honor to work with journalists who care deeply about both fronts, and it’s inspiring to meet student journalists (and aspiring influencers) who want to share verified knowledge and practice sound reporting.

Today is April 2, International Fact-Checking Day. It’s a day to recognize organizations all around the world that are dedicated to truth and facts, sometimes under immense pressure and with dwindling financial support.

We can’t take fact-checking for granted, which is why Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network started the holiday to follow the annual day of foolery. The IFCN, led by former PolitiFact Editor-in-Chief Angie Drobnic Holan, credentials more than 180 fact-checking organizations around the world who uphold the highest journalistic standards of transparency, fairness and independence. PolitiFact is a proud IFCN Code of Principles signatory.

Poynter and the IFCN are publishing essays from prominent voices in fact-checking today, including PolitiFact Chief Correspondent Louis Jacobson. In his column, Jacobson describes the urgency and unique challenges of reporting on war and other issues of democratic import:

Determining the truth of something happening under classified conditions on the other side of the world is not easy, and fact-checkers’ assessments inevitably require caveats about what we don’t know. But PolitiFact and other fact-checking outlets know how to use the resources that do exist, including data and the assessments of experts we’ve found to be trustworthy. We value transparency — not anonymous sources, who may have an agenda — and we value fairness, including reaching out to whoever is making the claim, including the Trump White House.

Keep reading Lou’s column and check out more columns:

In the absence of truth, misinformation becomes harmful: Nepal’s experience shows why fact-checking matters in crises
Fact-checking has to go where misinformation actually spreads
IFCN Director Angie Drobnic Holan comments on Meta and community notes following the Oversight Board’s recent advisory

Forward

Fact-checking Trump

Regime change? Trump and other administration officials have declared that Iran has undergone regime change following the killing of many top officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Removing top officials is a necessary step in regime change, but not sufficient, military and foreign policy experts said. After Khamenei’s death, Iranian government officials said his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, took power. Iran’s current government structure appears intact, bolstered by the same ideology and using the same levers of power. Because killing top Iranian leaders is a step toward regime change but insufficient to achieve it, we rate the statement Mostly False.
Raw numbers. Trump often celebrates how many people are working. “More Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country,” Trump said at a Saudi investment conference in Florida on March 27. This is Half True. In January, U.S. employment hit an all time high. But raw employment numbers are driven by overall population growth, so any president can claim an all-time high during their tenure. A more telling statistic about employment trends during Trump’s second term is that the past year-plus has seen the weakest job creation record in 16 years.

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Birthright citizenship (and Trump) at the Supreme Court: What to know

Trump sat in the courtroom while the Supreme Court heard arguments over his executive order limiting birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants. Trump became the first sitting president in U.S. history to attend oral arguments.

Lower courts have ruled that his 2025 order seeking to end birthright citizenship was unconstitutional.

The justices asked questions of Solicitor General D. John Sauer, representing the government, and Cecillia Wang, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union who argued against the order.

Trump left the courtroom after Sauer finished his opening argument, and wasn’t present as the justices, including some of his nominees, posed skeptical questions of the administration’s position. The justices pressed Sauer and Wang on the specifics of the 14th Amendment and a previous Supreme Court case that ruled the children of immigrants born in the U.S. were entitled to birthright citizenship.

Justice Neil Gorsuch asked Sauer whether under his argument “Native Americans today are birthright citizens.”

“I think so,” Sauer said. “I have to think that through.”

Minutes after the oral arguments concluded, Trump took to Truth Social: “We are the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow ‘Birthright’ Citizenship!”

Trump has repeatedly made this false statement. Days before the oral arguments, Trump also said birthright citizenship was meant for the children of enslaved people and is abused by wealthy foreigners.

Time for a fact-check: Read Trump misleads about birthright citizenship, birth tourism

— Maria Ramirez Uribe

Since 1961, doctors have recommended a dose of vitamin K shortly after birth. Decades of research have affirmed the shot’s safety. Here's why doctors recommend babies get the vitamin K shot. (PolitiFact's Grace Abels)

Trump’s shifting timeline for Iran war ending

Trump addressed the Iran war in a primetime address Wednesday night, saying the U.S. was on track to complete its military goals “shortly, very shortly,” without providing new specifics.

“We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” he said.

Trump said other countries that are more dependent on oil and commerce passing through the Strait of Hormuz should take the lead on reopening it. He said discussions with Iran’s new leaders were ongoing but the U.S. would attack electric generating plants “very hard and probably simultaneously” without a deal.

With the war in its fifth week, PolitiFact compiled a timeline of Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s shifting expectations for how long the war would last.

READ: How long will the Iran war last? See Trump’s timeline shift

— Amy Sherman and Zoe Weyand

How to ‘detox’ your body for free (Hint: It doesn’t require juice, teas or flushes)

The idea of starting fresh and clearing toxins and gunk from our bodies sounds good. And if you’re in the mood for a change, a profitable marketplace welcomes you.

Detox teas. Detox foot pads. Detox diets. Juice cleanses. Colon flushes. Supplements to remove toxins from the body, reset gut health, or "flush" out certain organs like the colon, liver, or kidneys. A multitude of products offer to get your insides squeaky clean.

But here’s the thing: Most people don’t need outside products to "detoxify" their bodies. The human body already has a robust natural system for clearing unwanted chemicals out of the body, and there are ways to support and facilitate those existing processes.

The best part? It’s free.

Here’s what experts say about why you should forgo those appealing-sounding "detoxes" and "cleanses" and embrace your body’s existing superpowers.

READ: Detoxes don’t have evidence and can be unhealthy

— Grace Abels